Tention Free : Let’s talk a bit about you & your music and what is the secret behind your band success ?

The band has gone through an evolution over the past five years, starting as a trio with Me (Mika Mage), my longtime friend Manuel Rodriguez, and M.w.s. recording and releasing our first album ‘Synkkä Tuuli’ on Horror Pain Gore Death Productions; and most recently developing into a solo act with me producing the most recent EP ‘Madness Incarnate’ and releasing it on Black Lion Records and Symbol of Domination Productions. All along the music has always stayed pure to the genre and vision, and we put our trust in the fans of ambient black metal music that they would understand and appreciate what we were going for, which is important because often those who don’t “get” the genre (i.e. the raw and lo-fi nature of the sound) would be heavily critical. A lot of hard work also went into personally promoting each release; tons of CDs and lots of money from my own pocket went into sending albums out for review, but I felt it was important to eat that cost in exchange for making sure the music had a proper reception within the metal community.

Tention Free : Can you please tell our readers more about the band members and their role in the band ?

Currently the only band member proper is I, Mika Mage; however, I do enlist the assistance of outside artists when making recordings for various reasons: I can’t drum or sing myself, I feel it’s important to have an actual drummer as opposed to a drum machine, and I feel it’s more dynamic to have more than just one person’s energy and talent contributing to a song or album.

With ‘Madness Incarnate’ the goal was to develop further upon the progressive black metal styling of the previous LP ‘The Child Must Die’, by infusing more doom, melodic, and brutal death metal influences. I organized a talented group of studio musicians for the effort, including three guest vocalists: Joel Robert Thompson of Omelas, Gary Hadden of Lesch-Nyhan, and James Dorton of the hugely popular Black Crown Initiate. Fans that have followed the development of Nihilistinen Barbaarisuus from its early days of raw atmospheric aggression will enjoy the dynamic range ‘Madness Incarnate’ encompasses, and hopefully perceive the artistic vision it displays for the future. By-in-large it is the most well received release thus far, both from the fans and critics themselves.

Tention Free : Please share with us your proudest moments ?

I would say my proudest moment would be when ‘Madness Incarnate’ got picked up by Black Lion Records and Symbol of Domination Productions (a sub-label of Satanath Records) for release. I know it’s cliché to say, but a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into making that EP and I was greatly humbled that such prominent entities in the underground black metal community would be interested in my music.

Tention Free : If you could perform anywhere, in the world, where would it have to be?

Helsinki, Finland (I’m a dual citizen of both Finland and the United States, so I’d finally get to put my Finnish passport to good use!).

Tention Free : Who are your musical inspirations ?

When I first started listening to music I was mainly into power and progressive metal, so I must say early on I was inspired by bands like Sonata Arctica and Rhapsody with some heavier material like Children of Bodom and Bal-Sagoth thrown in for good measure. Later on I developed into more extreme genres and found myself mainly inspired by bands like Dismember, Akercocke, and Hypocrisy, with black metal specific influences being chaotic bands like 1349 and progressive bands like Old Man’s Child. As a guitarist my hero is Jani Liimatainen of Sonata Arctica and Luca Turilli of Rhapsody; those guys are amazing and I’d do anything to have half their talent!

Tention Free : Have you set some goals to achieve as a ambient black metal band?

As yet we’ve only recorded and released albums and have not been unable to play them live. This is for many reasons, mainly that the band quickly became a solo act following the release of the first album and I haven’t been able to find live musicians interested in joining up to play music only I have creative input in, rehearsing it regularly, and playing shows for nearly no money. The closest I came to performing live was in 2015 when Unearthly from Brazil wanted NB to open for them on the second leg of their US tour, but a live lineup just wasn’t able to form in time. However, it is definitely a goal of mine to play live with NB at some point, it’s just there are many hurdles to face.